


How and Wherefore

by Leydhawk



Series: What Freedom Looks Like [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, F/M, Family, Fix-It, Leave no one behind, M/M, Saileen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28111533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leydhawk/pseuds/Leydhawk
Summary: How Sam, Eileen, and Jack got Cas out of the Empty.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Series: What Freedom Looks Like [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033791
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	How and Wherefore

Sam pulled up the text app on his phone the moment it really registered in his mind that Jack had said  everyone was back. 

Would she somehow have her phone? It didn’t matter, he had to try. He sent a text and waited, trying not to grip the phone too hard.

From Eileen to Sam: What the hell??

Tears filled Sam’s eyes and he held his breath. 

From Sam to Eileen: I am so glad you’re okay. Meet us at the bunker and I’ll explain.

From Eileen to Sam: You better. 

Sam smiled. He’d take her wrath. He’d do his best to kiss away every frown and make her smile and laugh again. There was so much about Eileen that Sam adored. She was fiery and quick-witted and her smile was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. They could talk or text for hours and she was so patient as he stumbled through learning to sign and remembering to enunciate and face her when he spoke.

They had spent so many hours getting to know each other. The hunter, Zelma, who had taken Eileen in as a baby, had raised Eileen much like how John had raised Dean. Eileen was an amazing hunter, even more impressive for her lack of hearing, although he’d learned not to express that to her. She had a withering, scoffing gaze when anyone implied she was good at anything ‘for a deaf person’. She was damned good at many things, full stop. When Sam had researched and learned that most lip readers only caught 30% or so of what people said to them, he’d tried to switch to mostly signing which, since he was a complete novice, often meant he spelled words out laboriously. Her face had grown incredulous and she’d deliberately spelled out W. T. F. But her fond exasperation as she told him she was above average ( _you asshole_ ) at lip reading had made Sam feel warm inside even with the insult.

She had a temper sometimes but she was always patient with Sam learning to communicate with her. He’d realized he liked her a great deal before she’d died, but it was after spending time with her ghost that he’d truly begun falling for her.

Having seen and experienced the dangers of focusing too closely on loved ones when there were bigger stakes, this time all of existence in fact, he’d had to push aside all the personal fear and pain he’d felt when he’d been texting her and she’d vanished with everyone else.

Now that he had evidence that she was back, the weight of her loss hit him and he found himself shaking as Dean drove through hour after hour, mile after mile, on their way home. Eventually, drained from the roller coaster of emotions, he fell asleep.

Sam woke semi-rested when they stopped for gas. Since he’d come to his hopeful conclusion of his own emotional turmoil, he finally noticed how stoic and stonefaced Dean was.  Shit.

Sam turned back to Jack when the boy returned to the car with a slushy drink and a package of licorice. 

“Jack, um, did... I mean, if you could have I assume you would have, but... Cas...”

The sad puppy look that swept over Jack made Sam’s heart hurt, not just for Dean that it likely meant Cas was still in the Empty, but because Cas was the closest father figure for Jack among himself, Dean, and the angel.

“I have no power there.” Jack shook his head.

“But... There’s gotta be a way. Maybe a spell or...”

Jack’s face lit. “Nick tried to get Lucifer out, and he almost succeeded before...” Jack’s expression fell again. Before he’d killed Nick.

“ _How_ ?”

“Some kind of ritual with my blood and—“

Sam waved Jack quiet as Dean returned to the car and they resumed their journey. He couldn’t bear to get Dean’s hopes up if this turned out to be impossible.

He sent a text to Eileen about his idea and what Jack had said, knowing she’d check messages whenever she stopped. Maybe she’d have something to contribute as well.

Sam considered all the stuff they’d brought back to the bunker from Rowena’s, too. She’d believed that magic could literally do _anything_ , so maybe there would be something there that could help.

Cas having sacrificed himself to save Dean from Billie had been bad enough, but when Dean had told Sam over drinks what Cas had said and that Dean’s own acknowledgement ( _finally_ ) had been what actually gave Cas the happiness to seal the deal with the Empty, Sam’s heart had completely broken for his brother.

If there was any possible way to reunite them and let them have their chance at happiness, Sam was going to find it. Dean deserved someone who loved him the way Cas loved: with his entire being.

When they arrived at the bunker, Sam found his hands were shaking and his stomach was feeling twisted. Eileen was there, and she looked up when the sunlight spilled through the door as he opened it. Sam caught her wide eyes and hurried to run down the stairs as she darted up them.

They met when she leapt up from two steps down and he caught her and raised her up to look into her eyes.

“I lo—“

She kissed him, ignoring his attempt to speak, and it was a perfect kiss.

Sam barely registered Dean moving around them and down to the main floor, but when Eileen finally let him up for air and they’d shared a long, teary (on his side) smile, he saw Dean retreating toward the personal quarters with a couple of bottles of liquor.

Sam frowned, knowing how deeply Dean was capable of crawling into a bottle, but Eileen recaptured his attention and they made their way the rest of the way downstairs. Jack followed, and Sam caught his eye and smiled at the pleased expression on the boy’s face before Jack headed toward his own room.

Sam’s stomach rumbled, and he signed “ _I’m hungry,_ ” to Eileen, and they went to the kitchen.

“ _What the fuck happened, Sam_? ” Eileen signed to him when he finished eating the quick sandwich he’d made.

Sam sighed. He did his best to sign as he verbally explained all that had gone on from her disappearance. She stopped him and had him repeat some things more slowly, which she only seemed to do when she was comfortable with someone and really wanted to make sure she understood.

“ _Free? No more Chuck?_ ” Eileen asked, and a tired grin lit Sam’s face. 

“Yeah. Seems like it.”

“ _Amazing_ .”

Sam nodded and gave a couple long blinks.

“ _I’m tired. Will you stay with me? _” Sam asked.

Eileen nodded and they went to bed. She let him hold her as much as he wanted even when it was too warm, knowing he needed the reassurance that she was there.

The next day, Sam checked on Dean and made him drink some water before he left he to sleep off some of the drinking he’d apparently spent all night doing. Sam realized he needn’t have worried about being able to work on the Cas situation without Dean finding out.

After breakfast and a shower, Sam found Eileen and Jack reading at one of the research tables. Just seeing her made something inside him settle.

“ _Jack said there’s a ritual for getting an angel out of the Empty. Where can we find it?_ ” Eileen said, signing along. He caught the J she used as well as _angel_ , then _where_. He’d have to have her show him the rest again. Later.

“Yeah. So, Nick probably found it here in the archives.”

“ _Let’s find it._ ”

Heading into the stacks, Sam checked in with Eileen and they split up to search.

It was only about five minutes later when Sam heard Jack call out to him. He touched Eileen’s arm as he went by, signing J to her.

Jack was smiling and held up a book.

“It’s in here.”

“What? How’d you find it so fast?”

Jack smiled, and started to glow.

“Ah.”

The glow faded, but Jack opened the tome to the correct page without looking at it. Megapowerful Jack was going to take some getting used to.

Sam skimmed the ritual and read ingredients aloud, startling once, when he read the first ingredient and it appeared on the table a moment later. His eyes flicked to Jack, the table, Jack, Eileen, then back to the book.

He kept reading, and ingredients kept appearing.

Until the final ingredient. They needed blood from a blood relation.

“Claire,” Sam said, and turned to Eileen. “She’s the daughter of Cas’ vessel.” Then he looked to Jack.

“I won’t take blood from someone unwillingly.”

“Of course, but, she’ll do it. We just need to talk to her.”

“Is it really the blood of the vessel we need, though?” Eileen asked.

Sam looked at her and signed,  “ _I don’t understand._ ”

“Cas has died and come back so many times. He chooses to keep looking like his vessel, but is that really what he’s composed of now, physically? Didn’t he get a hunter’s funeral once?”

It was a very good point. After all, it wasn’t as if they’d tested Cas’ DNA to know he was still the same as Jimmy Novak, even after his body had been burned.

“We’ll use her blood and mine, and some of my grace? I... I think I touched his grace, before I was born. He told me about it and... It would explain the deep bond we feel for each other, that goes beyond the bond I feel for you and Dean.”

Sam nodded thoughtfully and exchanged a long look with Eileen. 

“ _What do you think?_ ” Sam asked her.

She signed in return and was nodding. He only caught  _try_ but he was pretty sure she agreed.

“Okay. I’ll call her and see if she’ll agree. Alex, one of the other young women who’s staying with Jody, is in med school and can probably draw some blood and then you can...get it here?” Sam looked at Jack, who nodded.

Claire’s reaction over the phone was incredulous. “He died  _again_?”

Sam sighed. “To save Dean so we could save the world, yes.”

She sighed. “But I don’t have to be involved? You just need my blood, then godpower boy will just...vvvvvttt... and that’s it?”

“Pretty much. So can you ask Alex to draw a vial—“

“Fuck that. Sam, I swear, it’s like you don’t even believe I’m a hunter.”

A bandanna stained red appeared on the table.

Sam’s eyes darted to Jack and back to the table.

“Um, okay, sorry about that. Thanks.”

“...so, like, after he’s back, Castiel can come visit. If he wants to. I know how clingy he gets after something like this. And...he could meet my girlfriend.”

Sam smiled. “I’ll let him know. If this works, y’know.”

“‘Kay.” And Claire hung up.

The ritual had to be at a meeting of at least five ley lines, so after Sam checked on Dean, cleaning him up and making him eat a sandwich and drink some more water, they headed out in Eileen’s Plymouth Valiant to the nearest location.

Setting up the ritual took a while once they’d found an appropriately private spot: a barn not far from a crumbling farmhouse.

Eileen stopped Sam from beginning the ritual himself, pointing out that the translation they were working from implied a deep tie between the summoner and the one to be retrieved.

“ _The only relationship closer to Cas than Jack would be Dean._ ”

Sam tried to argue because, after all, he’d known Cas as long as Dean had: they were very good friends.

Eileen scowled at him. “ _Don’t let your ego endanger this, Sam! Cas defied Dean’s wishes to protect Jack before he was born. You know Cas would put Jack above you if he had to choose _.” Her gestures as she signed were emphatic, hands slapping, motions large, and Sam understood that she was shouting at him in sign even though she spoke in a normal tone.

Sam’s shoulders slumped. Of course she was right. He nodded and signed, “ _Yes. I’m sorry._ ”

Eileen’s expression softened and she touched Sam’s face. He pressed his cheek into her palm and took comfort in her dark eyes. All the years hunting with Dean, he’d felt second place in everyone’s hearts to his brother, until recently. And having this incredible, strong, beautiful woman prefer him gave him breathing space he’d never known.

“ _I love you, Eileen,_ ” signed to her, slowly and deliberately.

She smiled and went on her tiptoes to kiss him. 

“Let’s get this done,” she said aloud. 

So Jack did the ritual, and it was probably (definitely) good he did, because he ended up in some kind of tug of war with the black liquid-like physical manifestation of the Empty. But Jack glowed golden, and something dark and smoky worked with him in tandem effort and Cas ended up on the dirt floor, unconscious when the rift snapped closed like massive sideways jaws. 

Eileen offered a hand to help Jack stand when Sam scooped Cas up and took him to the Valiant, but Jack rose like he hadn’t struggled at all and they gathered the remaining supplies and followed.

“Where is Dean?” Was Cas’ first slurred sentence when he groggily opened his eyes. He was laying across the back seat of the Valiant propped up against Sam’s chest.

“Hey, man. Yeah, Dean’s back at the bunker. We’re on our way there. Are you—oh-okay...” Sam helped Cas sit up when he weakly tried to do it himself. But Cas seemed out of it and slumped instead against the door.

Sam looked to Jack, thinking to ask the boy to heal him, but Jack was watching Cas intently. After a moment, Cas looked back and they stared at each other, then Cas shifted back toward Sam and put his head against Sam’s arm.

“Wake me when we get there,” Cas murmured. 

“Yeah—sure thing,” Sam replied just as softly as he felt Cas already leaning heavily into him and going limp with sleep. Sam looked at Jack again, but the boy had turned back around and was facing front again. Clearly something had passed between the two but Sam had no clue what it was.

When Eileen pulled into the garage, Sam had to shake Cas to wake him, but he seemed somewhat rested and infinitely more alert. Sam started to try to tell Cas about the drinking binge Dean had gone on, but Cas and Jack were already standing together by the door, speaking to each other, with Jack encouragingly patting Cas on the back. 

Sam and Eileen shared a look and a hopeful smile, then went inside. 

Sam was surprised to see Dean out of his room and dressed. 

“ _Cas_ ?!”

Sam, Eileen, and Jack made it to the main floor, but Cas had stopped a few steps from the bottom and he and Dean were staring at each other. The expression on his brother’s face made Sam’s heart thump hard; the heartbreak, the despair, and the longing, with burgeoning hope were plain to see. 

Cas took the last steps to the floor and with a strangled shout, Dean rushed to him and threw his arms around him. 

Eileen took ahold of Sam’s arm and rested her head against it, watching Dean and Cas hug. 

Sam felt tears filling his eyes as his brother held his angel and Cas clung right back. 

It felt like an eternity before they began to relax at all and when both their heads lifted from being buried in one another’s necks, they looked at each other, and Sam held his breath. Neither was terribly good at talking about his feelings. 

But Dean just leaned in and set his lips on Cas’, and Sam felt the tears escape down his cheeks as he watched them kiss, oblivious to their audience as well as everything else in existence, likely. 

The light in the room began to gain a richness. It was brighter, but with more saturated colors and higher contrast. The effect doubled and Sam looked to Jack and the air around the boy was warping in waves, like a pulse. Jack’s eyes were closed, but light came from beneath his lashes, and when his head dropped back, they opened and that strange intensity of visuals shot from Jack’s eyes like cones of light/unlight, and the air gained a hum, a chord, all notes that complimented and so many of them beyond the edge of hearing. Sam could feel them in his chest, his fillings, vibrating his molecules it felt like. Tastes joined the sensory overload, sweetsaltybittersour but completely blended into something magnificent, and smells like an orchestra of flowers and foods and leather and people and rich earth and clean air and then it was on Sam’s skin, perfect pressure and slide and stroking and massaging like insanely overwhelming tantric sex but everywhere and it was incredible; all of it together was perfection but it was just too much—too much—TOO MUCH—

And like the smooth slide of the volume ratcheting down it faded.

Jack sat down hard on the floor and both Sam and Eileen went to him, Sam snorting lightly when he realized that Dean and Cas were still kissing.  


Oblivious, just as he’d thought. 

“Jack, what...?”

Jack looked tired but happy and he smiled up at Sam. 

“I let it go.”

“You let what go?”

“The power. I couldn’t stay here, if I kept it, and spreading it out, everywhere, darkness and light, creation and destruction, every opposite possible...well, they’re out there. The power is out there, it’s not tied to souls and grace and demonic energy. Those are all still there, too, but... Chuck’s power, and Amara’s, it’s free. So I can stay here, with my family.”

Sam didn’t know what to say.

“We’re, ah, we’re gonna go to my room. Y’all might wanna, um, vacate or use earplugs or something.”

Dean made the statement then hustled Cas toward the hall, both arms basically still around Cas’ waist like he couldn’t bear to let go.

“That’s our cue,” Sam said, laughing and wiping his face. He looked at Eileen and inclined his head toward the stairs.

“Why would I need earplugs?” Jack asked.

“Because, uh, they’re... They really missed each other...” Sam began, but saw that Jack wasn’t looking at him, his eyes were on Eileen as she said something in sign language. The gesture looked suggestive of a person on top of another.

“They’re going to have sexual relations. I understand, _thank you_ Eileen. I’m actually curious about that. I wouldn’t mind hearing it, so—“

Sam interrupted Jack. “You’re coming with us. No one wants to listen to parent figures having sex. C’mon.”

Eileen was snickering as they headed back upstairs and out of the bunker. 

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to lilinas for hooking me up with a sensitivity reader, to whom I also owe thanks! Thanks to my ever vigilant beta reader flyingpiglet because you’re the best, even when you don’t know the show.


End file.
